If you’re picking up a new language, learning or relearning to play an instrument, or starting to paint, you probably already realise that you will have to put in the time. There is just no way around it; those who are the best at a given subject are those who work on it most. You may have heard of the 10,000 hours theory from Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers” — that it takes that much time to become expert at anything.